Editing Ghost Hunt:Volume 7 Chapter 4 (section)

===5===

Although the next room was said to be a spare staffroom, it was practically a storeroom.

The room following that was another classroom.

The one that was most recently used as a classroom was the original staffroom. Inside, there were 18 little tables, all lined up at the front.

“So there were 18 students.”

“According to the information from the Village Chief, because 14 of the 18 students moved away all at once due to the construction of the reservoir, it resulted in the termination of the school operations.”

“Was that really the case?”

I looked round at the tables in the classroom, then quickly checked the insides of the tables.

“—Ne, there’re things still left inside the tables.”

John and Ayako also came over to look inside the tables.

“Hn, here too.”

“There is on my side too.”

Drumming up some courage, I pulled out the things inside the table. There were ancient textbooks that had gone slightly moldy, their pages practically glued together. 

Looking around again, practically all 18 tables had something or other left inside.

“The school clearly stopped running, why are these things still left?”

It had already progressed to this stage before Ayako realized it.

I knew it too. –Almost none of the words the Village Chief or his helper said could be believed.

“They really are all left behind, it’s just as though the people here all suddenly died.”

On the black board, ‘May 18th, Wednesday,’ was written in large lettering. It was easily understood from the written date; beneath it was written, ‘On Duty’, and ‘Takeuchi Ai’. 

“It looks like the date the school stopped operating was in May.”

“Yes…”

The date it stopped was May 18th.

The back wall of the classroom was stuck with practice pieces of calligraphy and art. Whichever piece one looked at was dirty due to the dust and a little moldy as well, it made one feel exceptionally painful. 

Next to the teaching platform was the teacher’s desk, books and paper were placed just like that on it, and were all covered with dust.

Without meaning to, I used my finger and touched it. Basic texts were placed vertically on the tabletop – these were probably the syllabus texts used by the teacher. On the side were a few bundles of paper, probably the scripts for a test. In the center of the table were 2 notebook-like books.

“It’s the class register.”

When they heard my words, everyone gathered around me.

Although it could be opened, due to the numerous blotches it could not be read. But we could tell that of the 18 students, not a single one was absent. On the last page, ‘May’ was written, but the day the present or absent marks stopped appearing could not be told.

“It is the 18th.”

John said, looking at the blackboard.

“That’s not for certain. It could be that the student on duty that day had written the next day’s date at the end of the day.”

“Then in that case it could be the 17th.”

“Yeah, if the 18th is a Wednesday, then the 15th would be a Sunday.”

Looking from the place where the present/absent marks stopped, counting back based on the number of days in a week, the marks had stopped on the 16th.

“Ah ne, it’s only at the 16th.”

“So it is.”

Ayako looked at the ceiling and spoke,

“After taking attendance on the 16th something happened. Bags and the kept animals were all left behind, it’s like the school was suddenly abandoned.”

“Yeah… sigh, there’s also a journal here.”

“How nostalgic.”

“Ah… can it not be read too?”

“Ye..ah…”

As expected, this was moldy as well. But at least it could be opened, and was not completely illegible. The last page could be seen clearly.

“—May 16th, Monday. Student on Duty: Michiyama Ayumi.”

“As expected, the 16th was the last day.”

“We’re finally going on a trip.”

“So that’s how it was…”

Ayako snapped her fingers.

“The 17th was the day of the trip, and they were to gather outside the school. Because they did not enter the school, the duty roster for the 18th was written first.”

“So that’s how it was. After that did something happen on the trip?”

“It looks like it did… look here.”

Ayako’s coral colored fingernail pointed to the journal.

“It says here that there was a little squabble about the seating arrangements on the bus.”

“They took bus to go on a trip…”

Could it be… It shouldn’t, right…

“Did this bus get into an accident?”

A possibility that arose was: an accident happened to the bus the students were taking, hence many of the students died. Could all 18 have died? That’s why this school, which had lost all its students, stopped operating.

“Was it really like this…?”

John said achingly, looking around the classroom.

In contrast, Boss’s voice was incomparably cool.

“—Even if it was like that, why would all the bags be left…?”

I inclined my head in thought.

“Indeed. Talking about it, if these are the remains of the dead, the family would want to collect it.”

“First, it’s not possible to leave the kept animals all alone even if all the students died.”

Because it was Ayako who spoke, I could only nod in agreement.

– The school stopped operating because of an unfortunate accident; because of the drifting spirits of the children… although all this was comprehensible, this was not all there was to it – there should still be something.

If it’s just the spirits of the children that appeared, the Village Chief and the others couldn’t possibly hide it.

“Are those words true?”

Ayako suddenly asked.

“What?”

“That a holiday village is going to be built near this place. Just looking at this school, I don’t think that this place has the geographical conditions needed to build a holiday village.”

“The words those foxes speak are not to be trusted.”

“Yeah… indeed. If that’s the case, then why would the Village Chief himself come forth to make a request? Could it be explained if there are facilities for a holiday village near to this place? But if such a plan does not exist, then simply because there are some spirits that appear here, they stop psychics who are just travelling nearby to investigate – is there really this necessity?”

“Could it be because - there are others - who, like us, can get in but not out?”

“If that’s the case, then wouldn’t it be faster to nail up or block up the entrances and exits?”

“It is indeed like this…”

At this time, we heard a minute sound mixed into the sound of the rain. 

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[Ghost Hunt:Volume 7  Chapter 3|Previous Section]]
| Return to [[Ghost Hunt|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[Ghost Hunt:Volume 7 Chapter 5|Next Section]]
|-7
|}
</noinclude>